VII Festival Maslenitsa (Shrovetide)28 February 2011 - 06 March 2011 SCHEDULE 28 February 2011 - 06 March 2011
At the Mariinsky Theatre and at the Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall Artistic Director of
the Festival - Valery Gergiev
The festival presents the greatest operas and ballets based
on Russian fairytales at the Mariinsky Theatre, masterpieces of Russian
symphony music and vocal programmes at the Concert Hall. The festival
strives to revive the traditions of the secular Maslenitsa
celebrations with vivid and colourful performances, balls and concerts that are
open to all.
Russia’s most ancient and beloved festival of Maslenitsa
(Shrovetide) was celebrated on a grand scale
in the pre-Revolutionary capital. The merriments of
Maslenitsa visited every home and every family. The aristocracy,
government officials, the intelligentsia and city residents at large were
all involved. In Tsaritsino Park and at the Admiralty there were
public celebrations throughout Maslenitsa week, palaces and townhouses
hosted dances and masked balls and theatre playbills dazzled with
the titles of the finest productions. Several years ago
the Mariinsky Theatre returned to the wonderful tradition of
Maslenitsa celebrations. The festival programme invariably
includes the finest productions, among them works based on fairytales as
well as vocal and instrumental programmes. Continuing the tradition of
open-to-all performances, which were run by the Imperial Theatres during
Maslenitsa, the Mariinsky Theatre will be running a series of
charity concerts. Reviving the primordially Russian tradition of
Maslenitsa student balls, the Mariinsky Theatre and the St
Petersburg University have, for several years now, been inviting students to
take part in bidding farewell to winter. The programme of
the university ball includes public entertainment, dancing, music
(featuring Mariinsky Theatre performers), pancakes and fireworks. Last
season the festival’s motto was Igor Stravinsky. Audiences had
the opportunity to see a broad ranging retrospective of
the composer’s music. Valery Gergiev said that “Maslenitsa
itself in Russia is a phenomenon, I believe, that is dear to us all on
some subconscious level. We didn’t see with our own eyes the stunning
festivities of the early 20th century, when the young
Stravinsky was probably enchanted by the atmosphere of Maslenitsa.
It is not by chance that one can sense – in so many of his
works – the biting frost, the snow, the merriment, probably
very tasty food and a good time had by all. And he was able to convey this
very well in his wonderful music.” Maslenitsa at
the Mariinsky is also a festival of stars. Regular participating
performers include the acclaimed pianists Denis Matsuev and Alexei Volodin
and the renowned violinists Sergey Khachatryan and Vadim Repin.
The Maslenitsa music festival, which brings together folkloric
traditions and the “society glamour” of the Imperial theatre, will be
taking place this season at the Mariinsky Theatre and the Concert Hall
for the seventh time.
Maslenitsa 2010: Mariinsky (Kirov) Opera and Ballet theatre |
Mariinsky hall plan |
Mariinsky Slide Show |
Mariinsky 3D View |
About Valery
Gergiev ARCHIVE: 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005
The festival presents the greatest operas and ballets based
on Russian fairytales at the Mariinsky Theatre, masterpieces of Russian
symphony music and vocal programmes at the Concert Hall. The festival
strives to revive the traditions of the secular Maslenitsa
celebrations with vivid and colourful performances, balls and concerts that are
open to all.
Maslenitsa opens on 28 February at two venues – at
the Concert Hall there will be a performance of Stravinsky’s opera
Le Rossignol after the famous fairytale by Hans Christian
Andersen, while at the Mariinsky Theatre there will be a ballet evening
featuring Fokine’s Petrouchka to music by Stravinsky and
Presentiment of Spring to music by Lyadov, created for last year’s
festival by the dancer and choreographer Yuri Smekalov.
On 1 and 5 March the Mariinsky Theatre will be hosting
performances of popular fairytale operas by Rimsky-Korsakov –
The Snow Maiden and The Tale of Tsar Saltan,
a production that brought back the primordial, full-blooded and
enchantingly colourful world of Ivan Bilibin’s illustrations for Pushkin’s
fairytales to the Mariinsky Theatre. Cinderella, choreographer
Alexei Ratmansky’s first full-length ballet to music by Prokofiev, will be
performed on 4 March.
On 5 March at the Concert Hall the Mariinsky Theatre
Orchestra under Valery Gergiev will perform Glinka’s famous symphonic fantaisie
Kamarinskaya, highlights of the ballet Anna Karenina and
Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, while Alina Ibragimova will be performing
the solo in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto at the Concert Hall for
the first time. A recent graduate of the Gnesins’ School of
Music, she has already garnered positive responses from critics throughout
the world: Ibragimova’s style has been referred to as “a blend of utter
freedom and total control which, in her case, is no contradiction”, and she
herself has been predicted to “shine on the horizon of classical music for
decades to come.”
3 March will see a performance of the theatre’s recent
opera premiere – Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. Laurent Pelly’s
lively and sparkling production, filled to overflowing with dazzling humour, is
incredibly suitable for the amusements of Maslenitsa week.
The lead roles will be performed by Zhanna Dombrovskaya (Adina) and
Stanislav Leontiev (Nemorino).
One vocal highlight of the festival will be baritone Vasily
Gerello’s solo recital on 4 March at the Concert Hall. The singer, who
appears free and incredibly artistic in solo chamber recitals, has prepared a
programme especially for the festival including romances by Boris Fomin,
Pyotr Bulakhov, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Nikolai Listov and
Nikolai Shishkin. The evening will also include some of the surprises
that Vasily Gerello loves so much.
The festival comes to a close on 6 March at the Mariinsky
Theatre with a performance of the ballet The Nutcracker
(production by Mikhail Chemiakin, choreography by Kirill Simonov),
the stunning sets, unique costumes and dynamism of which have ensured its
well-deserved audience success.
At the Concert Hall the festival comes to a close with
a special performance as part of the children’s subscription In
the World of Ancient Legends and Traditions after motifs from Wagner’s
grandiose tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen. The twenty-hour-long
operatic cycle – the libretto of which is based on the Middle
High German epos the Nibelungenlied (The Song of
the Nibelungs) – will be enacted, sung and told onstage in just
one and a half hours. Leading Mariinsky Theatre singers including Larisa
Gogolevskaya, Leonid Zakhozhaev and Mikhail Kit among others are engaged for
the performance.
During the festival, in the theatre’s White Foyer
outside the Tsar’s Box there will be a series of open-to-all daytime
chamber concerts, and before the start of performances and during intervals
the foyer will host the Quintet of the State Academic Andreyev
Russian Orchestra.
One special event of the festival will be
the Maslenitsa Student Ball on 4 March in the Assembly
Hall of the St Petersburg State University. The ball will be directed
by Irkin Gabitov while the choreographer is Dmitry Korneyev. During
the ball, artistes of the Mariinsky Ballet Company will help
the students learn and perform popular ballroom dances of the past,
ranging from the polonaise to the mazurka and the waltz.
The music at the ball will be provided by the Mariinsky Theatre
Orchestra and soloists of the Opera Company. The University’s
Maslenitsa balls generally bring together students from the city’s
various higher education institutions and are exciting and inspired. There will
be prizes for the most skilful and active dancers – invitations to
performances at the Mariinsky Theatre.
Russia’s most ancient and beloved festival of Maslenitsa
(Shrovetide) was celebrated on a grand scale
in the pre-Revolutionary capital. The merriments of
Maslenitsa visited every home and every family. The aristocracy,
government officials, the intelligentsia and city residents at large were
all involved. In Tsaritsino Park and at the Admiralty there were
public celebrations throughout Maslenitsa week, palaces and townhouses
hosted dances and masked balls and theatre playbills dazzled with
the titles of the finest productions. Several years ago
the Mariinsky Theatre returned to the wonderful tradition of
Maslenitsa celebrations. The festival programme invariably
includes the finest productions, among them works based on fairytales as
well as vocal and instrumental programmes. Continuing the tradition of
open-to-all performances, which were run by the Imperial Theatres during
Maslenitsa, the Mariinsky Theatre will be running a series of
charity concerts. Reviving the primordially Russian tradition of
Maslenitsa student balls, the Mariinsky Theatre and the St
Petersburg University have, for several years now, been inviting students to
take part in bidding farewell to winter. The programme of
the university ball includes public entertainment, dancing, music
(featuring Mariinsky Theatre performers), pancakes and fireworks. Last
season the festival’s motto was Igor Stravinsky. Audiences had
the opportunity to see a broad ranging retrospective of
the composer’s music. Valery Gergiev said that “Maslenitsa
itself in Russia is a phenomenon, I believe, that is dear to us all on
some subconscious level. We didn’t see with our own eyes the stunning
festivities of the early 20th century, when the young
Stravinsky was probably enchanted by the atmosphere of Maslenitsa.
It is not by chance that one can sense – in so many of his
works – the biting frost, the snow, the merriment, probably
very tasty food and a good time had by all. And he was able to convey this
very well in his wonderful music.” Maslenitsa at
the Mariinsky is also a festival of stars. Regular participating
performers include the acclaimed pianists Denis Matsuev and Alexei Volodin
and the renowned violinists Sergey Khachatryan and Vadim Repin.
The Maslenitsa music festival, which brings together folkloric
traditions and the “society glamour” of the Imperial theatre, will be
taking place this season at the Mariinsky Theatre and the Concert Hall
for the seventh time.
Maslenitsa 2011: Mariinsky (Kirov) Opera and Ballet theatre |
Mariinsky hall plan |
Mariinsky Slide Show |
Mariinsky 3D View |
About Valery
Gergiev ARCHIVE: 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005
SCHEDULE 28 February 2011 - 06 March 2011
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